Strategic Global Marketing n1060658
Strategic Global Marketing n1060658
Strategic Global Marketing n1060658
Marketing
SUMMARATIVE ASSESMENT
For the intent of coming up with the critical analysis, it has been reported that how Tesco
established itself in the British market by implementing effective logistical and supply chain operations. The
report evaluates that how Economic, Social and Political factors can be hurdle in way for Tesco’s operations
in the country and it can be overcome. It discusses about its competitors and the possibility of new entrants
in the market which could affect Tesco’s sales. Furthermore, the marketing activities of Tesco has been
discussed and it shows how its promotions strategies differentiates from its rivals that makes Tesco number
one.
It was found that. to get its expansion in part of Asia particularly Indonesia, it must find some
suitable market entry mode. It can make use of its experience from Malaysia and Thailand which operates
in similar conditions. In the later part it critically evaluates the market conditions of Indonesia and tells how
Tesco can manage its weaknesses and foresee threats.
Introduction
Tesco is a giant in global grocery market and is considered the third biggest in revenue generation. It
operates around the world with nearly 7000 outlets. The company originated in UK in 1919 as small grosser
and now turned into FTSE 100 Company listed in the LSE annual revenue of £ 60.93 billion and£ 2.67
billion Net income accounted in 2011 (Wild, 2019).
In this report various tools of business management have been used to discuss Tesco’s operations
in United Kingdom. In the first part PESTEL analysis has been used to describe the macro external factors
influencing the business. On the other hand Porter Five Forces has been used to evaluate micro
environmental factors. In both the analysis it describes the negatives which can be replaced with the
positives by implementing effective strategies. Furthermore internal analysis has been discussed by
mentioning the company mission and values which describes its mode of working. The report will be
focusing on marketing activities by using the well known 4P’s and Value chain analysis.
In the last section, Indonesian market has been discussed. It tells how Tesco can make use of its
reputation and can find suitable entry mode to target the Indonesian population. It critically evaluates the
factors such as income levels ,population ,political factors, and consumer segments. All the parts have
been thoroughly discussed supported by suitable examples.
External Analysis
An external analysis of the company put insights on the broader contexts of the business and its prospects.
It’s important for the companies in a way because it help them to devise some effective marketing plan.
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“External analyses can help businesses adapt to change and streamline their current products to fit the
needs of their customer base better. Regardless of whether you are a business owner or finance
professional, conducting an external analysis can help guide your company to success” (Team, 2021).For
external analysis usually PESTEL and Porter Five Forces are used to evaluate. In the following sections
macro and micro analysis for the company “Tesco” has been discussed.
Macro External
“The purpose Of the PESTEL analysis is to make you look around and see what is happening in the broader
economic and business environment” (Alanzi, 2018). In this section few of the factors have been discussed
which shows how TESCO can make use of opportunities and how it can tackle the threats coming its way
in the contemporary and changing business environment.
Political
United Kingdom is one of the worlds most stable and powerful countries in the world both politically and
economically. TESCO can be locally affected by its governmental policies locally by positive and negative
means. For example if government raises corporation taxes on business than it must increase its product
price which will ultimately result in less profits. It can also affect if value added taxes are increased or added
on products. Due to 2020 Covid outbreak many companies went into financial hardships and many went
bankrupt. In such case government announced finance incentives for British companies to help them ease
their difficulties (Kirschner, 2020).Tesco can get use of these compensations by government in this
transition period. They can cover there missed profits of 2021 which fall by 20% in 2021 (BBC,
2021).Another political factor is the Brexit 2019 which had shaped UK business to new horizons. Tesco
faced challenge in this period and the prices have gone high. In such a scenario Tesco needs to come up
with sharp marketing plans to encounter it and make sure their customers stay with them. They need to
maintain good relations with there suppliers so that demand supply graph stays connected.
Economic
United Kingdom is a huge economy which stands at 6th in the world with loads of direct foreign investment.
The company should be aware of the governmental and economic policies in terms of taxation,
unemployment, exchange rates, demand supply and other factors. The Russian Ukraine war of 2022 has
made a hike in overall price of commodities (Ilzetzki, 2022).. Tesco’s activities added £37.3bn to the wider
UK economy last year, according to a new report by KPMG (Quinn, 2018).Government encourages
employment drives from big retailers like Tesco. Tesco Should be recruiting more workers as it can lesser
the unemployment rate and helps improve UK economy which would be better for both company and the
country. Tesco need to keep of the exchange rate as well because it directly influences its international
purchases. As the GBP will be weaker in the international market it will make Tesco buy less and spend
more money.
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Social
Consumer behavior changes along with time and conditions. Social factors consist of lifestyles, leisure
,culture, religion, population, and others. UK is a multicultural arena so Tesco has much room to play. Many
ethnic backgrounds are present so the company can increase their product line without hesitation. In the
other way round they must make note of the religious factors in mind while making sales. According to PWC
report 65% UK shoppers are loyal shoppers. Tesco should avail this opportunity by developing close ties
and one to one connection with customers (PWC, 2014).Tesco should try to be away from controversies
such as the Thailand caged battery issue in which they were accused of keeping hens in battery cages
(Hickman, 2008). This would result in bad reputation of company and will cause decline in sales. Tesco
has taken several initiatives in recent years in response to social changes and demands. For example, due
to high demands, it sells branded halal meat to Muslim customers or have independent meat counters in
some stores in the UK. Likewise, it sells both branded and own-label halal meat in Malaysia and Thailand
(PLC, 2020). In short, the most important social factor for Tesco as a business entity is not to discriminate
its stakeholders in terms for race color or religion if they want to stay up in the ranking.
Micro External
“Porter Five Forces” model is a powerful tool to evaluate the competitiveness of the market. The
competitiveness of Tesco’s business environment was examined with the help of Porter’s five forces model.
The analysis findings are summarized as follows.
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Bargaining Power of Buyers
The bargaining power of buyers in the market is high due to the large number of available brands. In cases
where products have a slight differentiation and are more standardized, the switching cost is very low and
the buyers can easily switch from one brand to another. Due to the digital technology, options are available
on internet along with price and differentiation and customers can easily select as per their like and wish.
The buying behavior has quite changed a lot and unlike a decade ago companies have little room to
influence the customer base by their pricing. Tesco must set up the reasonable pricing as compared to
Sainsbury and Asda and offer some good quality products over their competitors.
Threat of Substitutes
The threat for substitutes in this market is low to medium as the retailer giants are making their way to small
towns to city centers making it impossible to local retailer to set up. The off licenses and organic shops
doesn’t seems to be major harm for Tesco as the customers will prefer the brand over a local shop due to
its pricing, quality and experience (Klemperer, 1995).However, if non-food items such as clothes are
considered, the threat is fairly high because the customers have other better options such as Zara, H&M,
Jhon Lewis etc to buy from.
Internal Analysis
Tesco was founded by Jack Cohen in 1919 as a group of market stalls. The business expanded rapidly in
United Kingdom and other parts of the world. Tesco experiences around 80 million shopping trips per week,
serving 66 shoppers every second and earning about £141,000 sales per minute (Davey.J, 2020).UK
biggest retailer has established itself quite well in the country after years of hard work. Following mentioned
is the corporate profile of Tesco with its strengths and weaknesses.
Mission
Tesco mission statement is “We make what matters better, together” (PLC, 2021).The mission itself clearly
shows that the success of this company is surrounded by everyone who is a part of it. It’s an organization
where stakeholders can contribute their share towards the growth of the company.
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Vision
Tesco vision statement is “to be the most highly valued business by the customers we serve, the
communities in which we operate, our loyal and committed colleagues and of course, our shareholders.”
(Tesco, 2022).Tesco vision shows that the loyalty towards its stakeholders is exceptional and they priority
their customers over anything else. Moreso, they serve irrespective of any background, ethnicity, color, or
creed.
Values
Tesco success over years gives the clear idea that their operations are based are purely based on the
values they have defined in their profile. Tesco introduced these values more than a decade ago and since
than it has been a part of their company culture and orientation. The following three are the core values for
Tesco.
The company has been conducting training packages for an environment friendly business and
created enough awareness on the issue across the employees, suppliers as well as customers. It said to
have reduced carbon emission by 3.1% per year according to its report (PLC, 2016). To create a better
community in which Tesco operates, it introduced education programs for children and involved itself in
community-based projects.
They have improved supplier relationship with standardization of payment across UK and Ireland.
New supplier helpline is introduced in Central Europe and new supplier website in Thailand following
successful UK launch in 2015 (PLC, 2016).Tesco has worked toward improvement of Health. They have
cut around 5% of sugar content through their drinks by each year. They have Raised over £13.7 million for
our National Charity Partnership with Diabetes UK and the British Heart Foundation (Uk, 2016).
Marketing Activities
Tesco is a huge brand with diversification in its business. “The company is focusing on “Every Little Helps”
strapline to strengthen its competitive advantage in the market” (Dudovskiy, 2016).Different marketing
means such as traditional media, print, social, events, promotions and public relations are used by the
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company to have its influence among its customers. A broader perspective of how Tesco marketing
activities are carried out will be explained through Marketing Mix and Porter Value Chain.
Marketing Mix
As discussed in the previous sections, Tesco is a leading brand in Britain supermarket. It enjoys 29% of
the total market share. What’s the main attraction of Tesco? Why it’s the leading brand in UK? Why it has
such a large consumer base? The answers to all these questions will be discussed by the 4P’s of marketing.
Product
Tesco has a diverse product line that ranges from food, clothing, electronics to financial services. They
have transformed these services to online sector too that’s why they cater every need of their customers.
That is why Tesco remains always a preference for the consumers. “Tesco has focused on a reduction of
third-party products to improve its operational efficiency (i.e. the 30% range cut in 2015) and development
of its own brands to strengthen customer loyalty” (Butler, 2015).
Price
Tesco follows cost leadership as a strategy in its pricing. It maintains sound relationship with its suppliers
to improve the network and control supply chain costs. Tesco continuously takes feedback from its
customer to reduce promotional expenses. “Tesco has a unique program called Brand Guarantee in which
if customers can get lower price of any branded product at any other place Tesco will match the price if the
customer is buying 10 or more products” (quinn, 2018).Tesco runs a scheme of Club card which further
lowers the price. It works as a loyalty card for customers and provides an excellent price-promotional
strategy of providing discounts to loyal customers.
Place
Like most of the retailers, Tesco runs two types of distribution networks named online and offline. Tesco
runs around 7000 physical stores around the world. It operates them with different categories such as Tesco
Express, Tesco Compact, Tesco Home Plus and Tesco Direct. The online setup established by Tesco
through which it serves its customers is known as Tesco Direct.
Promotion
Tesco is known to work hard on its promotional activities especially in traditional and social media. It has
made use of TV advertisements, sponsors charitable events, offers propagative discounts, and many more
to keep its brand hydrated. According to Nielsen AdIntel (cited in (Devlin, 2020) ) it is the biggest spender
in traditional advertising in the UK grocery retail industry. It spent over £80.8m in 2019 which was a lot
higher than the amount spent on advertising in 2018.
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Inbound and Outbound Logistics
As Tesco is having approximately 7000 stores across the globe so the inbound logistical operations are
quite complex and expanded. The company has made larger investments on logistics so economies of
scale can be exploited to greater extent. For example in 2013,government run a trails for longer containers,
Tesco as a result received container with carrying capacity of 51 cages instead of standard 45 cages. This
change resulted in 13% more logistical productivity (Assistant, 2012).The company has history of bad
relationship with suppliers particularly to increase operational margins. But under the leadership of new
Dave Lewis Tesco promised to have sound relations with suppliers. Tesco maintains a good leadership in
outbound logistics as it has the best system of online and offline distribution network which makes it number
one! Another great strategy is the division of its stores by different categories like Extra ,Metro and Express.
Services
Tesco has been following strategy of cost leadership and differentiation strategy. This means that staying
in ahead of rivals in terms of pricing and differentiation in the product line. However, it’s not possible for
Tesco to do exceptional as it must do offer lowest priced products with good quality. Exceptional is only
possible if you add additional costs to your services.
Recommendations
Tesco being the third largest measured in terms of gross revenues in the world can make use of this tag in
terms of various opportunities can not only diversify its business in UK but can strengthen itself in central
Europe and Asia where its business can get a boom. Tesco has 26.9% market share in United Kingdom
with its competitor Sainsbury standing at 14.9% (Bedford, 2022).So it’s clear than its position can’t be
challenged and it can make use of it by increasing its business in different domains. They can further
diversify its business in IT, e-commerce, banking, and insurances etc. Another opportunity which Tesco
can make use of is getting into joint ventures strategic alliances which will enable the company to reach
out to more customers. This will not only create brand awareness but will generate more revenue.
On the contrary, the company has got few threats which can be fatal for Tesco if they are not looked
after and tackled in the right way. Social issues have been a major problem for companies. Tesco need to
be careful with their advertising and promotions. They should make sure that anything shouldn’t be going
against norms and sentiments of their customers. Controversies just as the Christmas advert of 2020 and
Fake Farm advert of 2017 can make customers adapt disloyalty from the brand. Content presented should
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be ethically and morally meaningful. Another potential threat that Tesco should be aware of the economic
crisis in the world after Post-Covid and Russian-Ukrainian War 2022.This can increase prices of
commodities worldwide, increase inflation and supply chain can be badly affected. In such time Tesco
management should effectively address every situation.
Critical Evaluation
Companies need to decide wisely when it comes to investing or getting into a new venture. Once a decision
has been made, the reversal is often quite difficult. Regarding the internationalization of the British MNE
Tesco, it first ventured into Southeast Asia in 1998 (PLC, 1999).Since then it has not lost its value for
investments in the region. In 2018, foreign direct investment (FDI) flows reached their all-time high of $149
billion with Indonesia alone responsible for $22 billion. Retail and wholesale trade were among the principal
drivers (Nations, 2019).
Indonesia has less freedom of expression compared to Tesco parent country. It has less political
stability and as such no regulatory bodies are working much effectively. The rule of law is less pronounced
which ultimately causes increased corruption. Rules of advertising is tough and Indonesia as Muslim
dominated country will give Tesco a tough work in terms of advertising. It may be difficult for Tesco to obtain
the validity of sales contracts or to legally enforce due invoices because of less pronounced rule of law. It
totally depends on Tesco that it knows how to circumvent this situation and adopt a good market strategy.
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Indonesia is comprised of young people which Tesco can target. It has got 36 big cities in which Tesco can
lay its platform with partner firm to start its business.
There are some challenges which Tesco might face during the initial timeframe. There is a lot of
corruption in the country and bribery is common. So Tesco need to take a clear note of it. There is high
logistical costs in the country which could be incurred in the operational expenses in Tesco’s sheet. They
need to balance it with the correct use of it. Tesco will have to interact with various ministries for approval
as the bureaucratic system is involved in a lot of business operations. There are many taxations when doing
business in Indonesia. This applies for both the consumer as well as the company. Tesco should have a
clear note of all of these before it makes an entry into the market.
Conclusion
Tesco has a very well-established business in UK. Tesco applies good and effective strategies in its
business to promote growth. Its primary focus is to build its business and to attract more customers. To get
its hold in business Tesco needs to be updated with latest trends and the needs of its customers. Moreso
they should be knowing their competitors and make sure they didn’t get ahead of them in any platform.
Lastly, Tesco must always be in the search of expansion around the world. Whatever ,they feel suitable to
target they must avail the opportunity keeping in mind all the factors and risks associated with it.
References
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in order to improve its operational profit margins under the previous leadership in 2014. The Guardian,
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Appendix
1.PESTEL ANALYSIS
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2.7P’s of Marketing
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3.Supermarket Share
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